Chance at Redemption
by Yardling
Summary: A pegasus stallion is found at the edge of the bog but he can't remember a single thing before waking. He's taken to TwilightSparkle for help to recover his memory but she discovers something isn't quite right about his past. Now she must choose to either divulge his past or let him forget and be a normal pony while he struggles to keep his surfacing memories secret so he can stay.
1. Waking

==Intro==

A pegasus stallion is found at the edge of the bog and is brought into Canterlot so that Celestia and Luna may decided what to do with him. Upon waking, they find he cannot recollect anything prior to having been found.

His memories needed to be recovered and who better to help than Twilight? So Celestia brings him to her faithful student to see if she can bring out any of his buried memories.

Upon her first attempt, she realized that his mind holds a deeply horrific collection of memories that cause the stallion to become physically ill. Now she must decided whether to alert Princess Celestia for the sake of Equestria, or allow him to forget so that he may start over fresh.

Meanwhile, the stallion slowly begins to recall bits of his past and struggles to keep them secret in fear he'll be forced to leave his new home and new friends and even his new lover interest (not twilight) but keeping these memories bottled up doesn't come without consequence. They began to eat away at him and make him physically and mentally ill. If he admits the truth, he'll be sent away but if he hides it, he'll become more and more ill and inevitably commit heinous crimes.

What must be done to save him and Equestria?

* * *

It had been the hottest topic for the past week. It had spread like wildfire through a field starved of rain and shadow. They began to wonder if they should have tried to keep it a secret after all instead of being so careless after having figured they'd find out anyway.  
But what harm would it do?

...

"Where do you come from?"  
"I-I don't remember. I don't even remember my own name. Where..am I?"

She narrowed her eyes with apprehension at his claim. It was a likely story. She didn't grace him with an answer, not immediately.

He struggled to bring his legs out from beneath him, wincing with pain. She could feel a tinge of pity as he struggled to his hooves. Once standing, he stumbled but quickly caught himself and tapped his hoof to the ground to test the soundless of his own leg. He looked up at her with his silvery eyes brimming with confusion and fear. Why he looked at her in a such a way, she didn't understand.

"You remember..somewhere." She concluded out loud. "Seems you have a case of amnesia."

The -blue colored stallions brows came together as if the very idea were absurd, but it was the only explanation that made sense. "So, what do I do now?"

Celestia and Luna exchanged glances before Celestia spoke again to him. "I will take you to My Faithful Student. She is very bright and may be able to help you."

He perked up a little, "She's a doctor?"  
"Not quite." Celestia admitted. "But she knows of things that will be more helpful than what a doctor can do." She approached him and observed his cutiemark for the umpteenth time. "I'm sure this will give us a clue as to what your name may be."

He twisted himself around to get a good look and rose a brow. The mark was nothing more than a silver heart with a deeper blue swirl of some sort whirling around it. "Er..hmph..Nothing's coming up."

"That's fine. In good time, you'll remember. Until then..we can't very well send you home, especially considering we don't know where that is. I'm sure we can find you a place to stay. Whether or not you choose to go home once you're memory has been recovered, that's your decision."  
The stallion couldn't help but take a quick glance out the window where he could make out the town of Ponyville. His gaze returned to Celestia. "You'd let me do that?"

"You seem surprised. Is there something we should know?"  
He shook his head. "No. But..I'll let you know if something comes up."

Celestia nodded then began off towards the exit. "Come. I'll take you to Ponyville where My Faithful Student resides."


	2. Tumultuous Memories

With the sun setting, Celestia and the nameless Stallion were happy to have finally arrived at the home of TwilightSparkle.

He stood by her side, though a bit further back, and waited anxiously to see who this Faithful Student was. Celestia had given the door a knock which was answered by a faint "I'm coming!" then the sound of hooves.

Moments later, the door opened and a purple unicorn mare stood in the doorway. "Princess Celestia! What a surprise!"

"My Faithful Student, might we come in?"

"Of course!" replied the mare who stepped aside to allow them to enter. The door shut behind them and things seemed to become uncomfortably quiet.

"Is anything the matter?" she asked, her voice loud in the silence.

"Nothing at all. In fact, I have a favor to ask of you."  
"A favor? Sure, anything!"

"Just last night, this pony was found just outside of the bog. He can't recall his name or anything prior to having awakened in Canterlot. I was hoping you could help him in some way."

TwilightSparkle leaned to get a good look at the Stallion who stared back like a deer in headlights. "Sure, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Twilight. You're doing us both a huge favor. Now, I must take my leave. Let me know if you find anything out." Celestia said before taking her leave.

The two stood in a silence for a moment then Twilight spoke. "Uuh, so. I guess we should get started. I could try some hypnosis and some trigger words."  
"Sure, you're the boss." he replied with an aire of nonchalance.

Twilight led him to a small area with a chase lounge and instructed him to lie down then pulled out a book using her magic. She flipped through the pages until she found the right one then took her place beside him and began.

Minutes into the process, Twilight requested his thoughts and memories.

"Where are you now?"

"I..don't know. It's dark. Really dark. It's cold and damp too." his brows furrowed. "It feels like somebody is with me but..but I don't see anything. Their presence is so heavy..it's like..they're wrapped around me but I only feel a chill."

Twilight jotted this down quickly. It was so strange yet fascinating!

"I..feel terrible..like..like I'm going to die..I have this ominous feeling like..something horrible is coming..but I don't know when. My god..the air is so thick..and..and it wreaks like..like sulfur and something rotten. It's everywhere..I can taste it..Ohgod it tastes awful.." He began to toss on the chair, his head moved from side to side.

"Maybe we should stop for now-"

"What-something..is coming.." he announced as his breathing became frantic. "That smell..it's getting stronger..I..I can't-"

He suddenly shot up and leaned over the edge of the chair just in time to convulse once before a thick stream of vomit gushed from his gaping throat. He was shaking but it didn't stop him from dry heaving a few more times before he let out a pained, despaired moan.  
He sank into the cushion then slid off like a limp hunk of meat and landed on the floor with a thud. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth but he appeared to have passed out.

"Holy-" Twilight breathed. She was in utter shock and didn't know what to do, but she feared telling Celestia would lead her to believe that his incident was her fault.

"What do I do? What do I do?!" She chanted as she touched the back of her hoof to her forehead. "Okayokayokay, calm down Twilight. First..I should probably clean that up..nono..I should get him somewhere to lie down. Yeah.."

She set the book aside then proceeded to maneuver the Stallion back onto the chase lounge. It was moments like these when she was happy to have magic or else she would have had to clean the puddle of vomit with her own hooves. When it was cleaned up, she sighed miserably. "Why do these things always happen to me?"

For the next couple of hours, he remained still as a corpse on the lounge. Every now and then, Twilight came over to make sure he wasn't actually dead. His breathing was normal but nothing else moved, not even his eyes. Throughout the hours he'd been asleep, he hadn't entered REM once.  
"Is going to remember anything when he wakes up?" She asked out loud.  
"When who wakes up?"

Twilight jumped in her skin but immediately recognized the voice. Behind her, Spike was standing with a half eaten cupcake. "I brought you one too..this is..what's left of it."  
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Just eat it. I've got a bigger issue on my hooves right now."

Curious, Spike neared her and nearly dropped his cupcake when he saw the deep colored stallion laying limp on the lounge. "Holy shit, Twilight. Did you kill him?" He whispered.

"No, Spike. He was found out near the bog and Princess Celestia wanted to see if I could help him recover his memories."

"So, did it work?"  
She looked at the ground forlornly, "No..I think I might have made it worse."

Spike shook his head. "Nn, nn, nn. Let me guess, you tried one of your experiments on him."

"No." she shot back. "I tried to use hypnosis but.." she sighed. "Whatever is in his head..I think it might be best if he didn't remember it..he..got really weird."  
"Weird like how? He started babbling and acting like a dog?"  
"Not..quite." She jerked her head in the direction of the stairs. Spike followed her to the side of the staircase and she continued. "He recalled being somewhere dark..and..really awful..it sounded like..a dungeon or something. Just before he threw up and passed out..he said somebody was coming. He really freaked and then..bleh..all over the floor and he dropped like a dead fly."

"Whoa, that is weird. You don't think..he's.."  
They both looked over at him as he layed motionless on the lounge. "I don't know. I'm afraid to find out. If he is evil..I can't imagine what that thing coming for him could be.

"Maybe we should tell Celestia to check and see if there are any missing captives..who knows..this guy could be dangerous."

"But..he doesn't remember anything. Maybe this is his chance to start with a clean slate."

"I dunno..if he's evil..nothing will change that.."

"I still want to give it a shot. So don't tell anybody, you hear me?"

"Yeah yeah yeah. No promises though."  
Twilight's horn glowed and she narrowed her eyes. "I'm SERIOUS, Spike."

"Okay okay! Sheesh."

With that, he left the room, cupcake in hand. Twilight neared the stallion again and looked to him for a moment. "You still have a chance. I might not be the best role-model..but I'd be worse if I let you go back to your old ways."


End file.
